Is there a wrong way to level?

[Thomas2400]

Just started the game and I'm fighting with a sword so when I have the amrita to level and I see that adding a stat point to heart increases my Life, Ki and attack power it feels like I should always go for that but I don't want to end up in a situation later on where I regret pumping all levels into one stat and it becomes a huge grind to course correct

 

 

[RecodingGenesis]

It's been a minute since I've played but you'll want some extra points in body, because more life; some points in either strength or skill, so you can unlock the extra skills on armor; some points in dex or magic if you want to use ninjutsu or onmyo; and enough points in spirit to get your guardian passives. I'm fairly certain you can respec later using an item so it isn't the end of the world if you experiment either. 

[Muff_Scuffle]

You can reset your stats anytime with books from the smith and tea house. Nioh is mainly gear dependent  so early on your stats are best directed for meeting requirements for equipment until high levels. My advice to you would be to aim for some core stats.

 

10 Body
15 Heart
X - Stamina - as much as needed for your current equipment load to be under 70% weight
X - Strength - Meet equipment requirements
X - Skill - Meet equipment requirements
10 or 20 - Dexterity
10 or 20 - Magic
25 - Spirit

 

With this distribution you will be able to use all guardian spirits and you will have enough ninjutsu and omnyo to pick minor offensive and support spells.

[xItsLesterx]

42 minutes ago, Thomas2400 said:

Just started the game and I'm fighting with a sword so when I have the amrita to level and I see that adding a stat point to heart increases my Life, Ki and attack power it feels like I should always go for that but I don't want to end up in a situation later on where I regret pumping all levels into one stat and it becomes a huge grind to course correct

 

 

actually there is. I made that mistake. There’s always 2 stats that will increase your weapon’s damage depending on what you chose. Other points can be distributed to either spirit for your guardian, dexterity and skill for ninjutsu and omnyo magic. Personally I used the Kusarigama cuz it was the OP weapon of the game and it leves up with dexterity and skill. Other points stats I used for minimum requirements for the armor I was using. Just about every stats will give you health increase but it was be as much as choosing the actual stats that’s for HP increase. You can always use the book of incarnation later in the game as it’s mad expensive at the beginning of the game. You get tons of it on NG+, especially if you’re going for the 100%. 

[Thomas2400]

thanks for the answers just a follow up question 

 

With gear should I be focusing purely on numbers or the stats on each piece of gear and what should I do with equipment I'm not going to use sell it all to the blacksmith?

[FilmFanatic]

4 hours ago, Thomas2400 said:

thanks for the answers just a follow up question 

 

With gear should I be focusing purely on numbers or the stats on each piece of gear and what should I do with equipment I'm not going to use sell it all to the blacksmith?

When playing on Way Of The Samurai or Way Of The Strong your armour doesn’t really matter to much. Personally I mostly went with whatever had better defensive stats. The perks on armour aren’t going to matter much either. Equipment doesn’t matter until you start Way Of The Demon. On that difficulty you’ll need a build made specifically for Demon otherwise you’re going to struggle. For gear that you aren’t going to use, sell any white, yellow, blue and purple gear and once you’re on Strong difficulty sell the aforementioned gear but always break down green gear as you’ll want the divine shards to reroll gear perks if you’re planning on doing Demon difficulty.